Buspirone fails to affect cocaine-induced conditioned place preference in the mouse

The conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure was employed to examine the effects of the 5-hydroxytryptamine1A (5-HT1A) receptor agonist, buspirone, on cocaine reinforcement. Cocaine (5.0 mg/kg, S.C., 30 min) produced a significant place preference whereas buspirone (0.5-2.0 mg/kg, I.P., 30 min) per se failed to induce a CPP. Buspirone pretreatment (0.5-2.0 mg/kg, I.P.) 30 min prior to cocaine (5.0 mg/kg, S.C., 30 min) conditioning had no effect on the acquisition of cocaine-induced CPP. Pretreatment with buspirone on the postconditioning test day also failed to affect the expression of an already established place preference response to cocaine. These results demonstrate an inability of buspirone to block both the acquisition and the expression of cocaine reward, as modeled in the CPP paradigm.